In Anaheim, the Carolina Hurricanes continued their improved play against the best team in the NHL but fell apart late in the third to cough-up a two goal lead and lose in OT, 5-4, to the Ducks.
Anaheim is now 23-0-6 in one-goal games this season.
“Too many of them, let me tell you,” Ryan Getzlaf said. “As long as you’re winning them, that’s the best thing.”
Getzlaf scored just 45 seconds into extra time to finish a wild comeback for the Ducks who trailed 4-2 in the third.
The Canes had two 5-on-3 opportunities but came up empty on both and that cost them game according to their coach.
“You ought to continue to work on it,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said of the power play. “You ought to continue to evaluate your personnel and [get] the right guys on it. They’ve got to execute better. Obviously that was the difference in the game. Two 5-on-3s [and] we came up dry.”
Brad Malone, on a penalty shot and Jordan Staal gave the Canes a 4-2 lead early in the third before Devante Smith-Pelly scored for the Ducks to make it 4-3.
“It’s frustrating to have a two-goal lead and giving one up in overtime, but we played a pretty good game against another really good team,” Malone said. “I’m going to take the positives out of it, and move on and get ready for [the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday].”
Corey Perry‘s 21st of the year tied it ahead of the final horn to force the extra session.
“Very rarely do you get two 5-on-3s against, especially in one period [or] within 10 minutes of a period,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But if you usually kill them off, it’s funny how it works, you usually end up winning the game. They had their opportunities to bury us. When a team doesn’t put another team away, usually bad things happen.”
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